The University of Illinois is poised to be a global leader in quantum physics thanks to state funding and a partnership with the University of Chicago, Argonne, and Fermilab.
Written by Joseph Park, ECE ILLINOIS
The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is poised to be a global leader in quantum science research thanks to new fundings and partnerships according to an article by Crain's Chicago Business. ECE ILLINOIS Professor Andreas C Cangellaris, M. E. Van Valkenburg Professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering, called the new state government funding a "paradigm shift" in technology.
Andreas C Cangellaris
Although the University of Illinois is best known for supercomputing and internet breakthroughs, Illinois also has an extensive background in quantum physics, studying the subject since the early 1950's. In October, Illinois joined a partnership with the University of Chicago, Argonne, and Fermilab for a project called the Chicago Quantum Exchange.
Cangellaris stated that the state investment will be used to construct "a state-of-the-art facility" and compared the new state grant to the state funding of the university's supercomputing program which helped it win important federal funding. Without the state grant, the resulting technological revolution may not have happened.
"Illinois has been giving a lot of its invention and talents to the rest of the world," Cangellaris said of the home-grown tech scientists and entrepreneurs who left for California and other places in an interview with Crain's Chicago Business. "It's about time that Illinois benefits directly."